UNDP and partners support peaceful elections in Guinea

Oct 12, 2015

Millions of Guineans voted peacefully on Sunday in the country’s second democratic presidential ballot since independence. The vote was seen as an opportunity to consolidate cohesion and accelerate development as the country worked to recover from the Ebola crisis.

In the center of the capital Conakry, Bari Traoré, a 27 year-old man living with disability, made specific arrangements to go and vote. Traoré said the election is an opportunity for the people of Guinea to freely choose a person who will run the country for five years. '' I voted for a candidate who has a good project and have no regrets,'' he added.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon applauded the country for the peaceful conduct of the first round of the elections and encouraged all political leaders and national stakeholders to continue to promote peace and dialogue as the country awaited the results.

UNDP, together with the European Union and the Government of Japan supported the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) in the organization of the vote.
In total, 75,000 polling officers were trained and deployed in 14,400 polling stations and the material procured for the election included 10,000 ballot boxes and thousands of health kits to minimize the risk of contracting Ebola.

UNDP dispatched experts to support CENI ahead of and during the vote. Together, UNDP, the UN Peace-building Fund, USAID and the National Democratic Institute helped to deploy representatives from Guinea’s full spectrum of political parties to polling stations, as well as 2,000 youth and women observers to overview the process of gathering results on Election Day.

They also worked with a national NGO called the “Coalition of Women and Girls for Dialogue, Peacebuilding and Development” to promote peace, trust and to serve as an early warning system and defuse tensions.